You are right. I remember a '65 Custom (stripper) that my high-school friend's father had as a company car. It had a cold light, which glowed blue. It amused the heck out of us, cut I never did find out what it was for. Maybe to explain why the performance of the six cylinder engine was even more pathetic than usual.

My '67 Newport had a "cold" light as well, although the first time I had ever heard about them was in the early 1960's Chevies. I always thought it was a cost cutting move. Instead of giving you a real temperature gauge, instead they'd give you idiot lights. The red one, which we're all more familiar with, comes on when the engine is running too hot. But the blue one (on my Newport I think it was a fairly icy, washed-out blue) is supposed to come on when you first start the car and it's warming up, and when it goes off, the car is supposedly warm enough to start driving.

At least, that was my take on it. In some ways, I guess it's a good idea. With a gauge, there's really no way to tell once a car is getting warm, until you see the needle start to creep. And sometimes, that can take a long time!

This has been a fun subject I think. I've learned some stuff I hadn't known about, too. Shifty, I wasn't aware of BMW's directional signal lever being on the right hand side..but when you lived in Greenville, PA, a BMW was a very strange thing to see if at all!

You're right imidazo, by 'two columns' I meant the second, smaller shaft for the transmission selector lever. Sloppy wording on my part.

I knew that the early '60's Fords with a manual choke were only the sixes, and I actually had guessed that they were only the stick shifts (for some reason). But I was surprised that even six-cylinder Larks had automatic chokes at the same time, considering how poor Studebaker was supposed to be at that time.

I'm scratching my head, but I think I'll probably come up with more oddball stuff over the years, that's not related to styling or no developmental money.

Aaargh!!! My Dad had a 1981 Ford Thunderbird Town Landau. I HATED that turn-signal stalk horn! Theres a HUGE hub in the center of the wheel to put a horn and yet some knucklehead at Ford put it in the turn signal stalk!

I wonder how long it usually takes for the light to go away? I have a friend who used to have a 1998 Tracker, and he would usually wait until the temp gauge started to register before he'd drive off. Sometimes, that could be a good 5 minutes!

Nowadays, I usually don't wait more than 30 seconds to let a car warm up. Unless it's a *really* cold day, and/or it's been sitting for a long time. Then I might go as long as a minute, and then, once I'm moving, just try to drive gently for a bit, until it gets warmed up better.

I looked it up, and it all came back to me. No temp gauge, but a cold light in a cluster of idiot lights just to the right of the clock, which was under the speedometer, above the steering wheel. No temp gauge is kind of cheesy. My car had a 390, which seemed to take forever to warm up, a good 10 minutes after starting, it would still like to stumble and stall.

Or the stalk mounted cruise control for MB, which seems to vex idiot journalists and uninitiated drivers. It works fine once you think about it though, there's a logic to it. I've read it will go away in the future :sick:

I want to like that Bonneville, but it looks like it needs a full paint job and the car gives me the feeling it's lived a bit of a tough life.

Of the downsized GM full-sizers for '77, I like the Bonneville a lot. The Buick had the dash I prefer but not by much and the styling on the Buicks wasn't as good as these. I like the Olds styling but not the interior, while the Chevy had cool styling on the coupe but nothing else that I liked.

I always looked at that as a cost-cutting move. The '88 LeBaron coupe that we had, which I let the ex-wife take in the divorce, had the power window switches in the console rather than the doors. It probably does save a bit of money, as you just have the two switches in the console, rather than a master switch int he driver's door, and a switch in the passenger door.

IIRC, the PT Cruiser convertible, which had roll-down rear windows, had all four switches in the console, so rear seat passengers had no control at all of the windows back there.

I guess those center-mounted switches are okay once you get used to them...I just never did!

That's exactly what it was - cost cutting, or really, being more efficient, as that way the car would be universal for LHD and RHD markets, as MB sells everywhere. But finally they relented, about 10 years ago, and the switches are all now on the doors.

IIRC, the normal PT had window switches high on the dash - that was odd. My mother had one as a rental several years ago, and that drove her nuts.

If I could have any full-sized GM car from 1977, I think it would be a fully-optioned Catalina. I prefer its style to the Bonneville, as it's less fussy, and the clean grille design almost looks sporty for a big 70's car. I guess the only down-side is that the Catalina isn't all that luxurious inside, so I'd have to trade off the opulent, Fredericks-Of-Tijuana style luxury that was so in vogue back then.

I like the Buick's dashboard for its style, but didn't like those silver-faced gauge faces, or the big clock mounted on the passenger side. By the time 1985 rolled around and my Grandparents bought their LeSabre, the gauge faces were black, and the clock was digital, in the radio face. Two other minuses of the Buick dash...the glovebox was really tiny for a full-sized car, and I don't think Buick offered extra gauges, as Pontiac, Olds, and Chevy did.

With Chevy, I preferred the Impala to the Caprice, and for the same reasons as the Catalina versus Bonneville. The grille just seemed a bit less fussy and pretentious.

Style-wise overall, I think the Olds Delta 88 would be my least favorite, but I think I'd be happy with any of those B/C bodies...as long as I didn't get stuck with an under-sized/undesireable engine.

I always looked at that as a cost-cutting move. The '88 LeBaron coupe that we had, which I let the ex-wife take in the divorce, had the power window switches in the console rather than the doors.

My 87 Daytona had the two window switches in the console - right next to the driver power seat switch. The first day I had it, my girlfriend (now wife) tried to put raise her window but wound up using the power seat switch. She's cursing that the window doesn't work while I'm slow moving towards the steering wheel....